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All articles here are written by Melinda Briana Epler (that's me!) unless otherwise noted. I'm a documentary filmmaker, writer, and brand experience designer - I've dedicated my life to living a sustainable lifestyle and helping others do the same. Please feel free to contact me if you have questions or thoughts for articles. Welcome!

What Is Your Walk Score?

Everyone finds home in different ways, we all feel at home in different places. But one big thing we were looking for when we moved to Seattle, was to drive less and walk more. The cost to the environment and our budget was getting pretty steep in Geyserville, where we had to drive many miles to get just about anywhere. We were hoping it would be different here in Seattle…

Walkability

Originally I found this link from Patti’s Foodshed Planet, quite a while ago. I was totally bummed, when I learned our score back in Geyserville. I knew it was bad, but I didn’t realize how bad. Ready? Here was our walking score in Geyserville:

So then recently Cheap Like Me featured the same site, and I was excited to check out how our new place compared. We really searched for a city that was sustainable, and a neighborhood within the city that was as sustainable as we could get. So… ready? Here it is:

92. It’s hard to believe that the two maps contain the same distance, isn’t it? Seattle is actually featured on the site – I’m not sure why – maybe it’s from here? Anyway, you can take a look at Seattle’s overall walkability: 72. Our neighborhood comes in 12th on the list of top walkable neighborhoods in Seattle. That’s because it’s a huge neighborhood. But we’re 2 blocks from downtown, #2, and 3 blocks from First Hill, #3, so I think we fit more there. (We live almost dead center in that green circle in the middle of the map.)

Is It Accurate?

Well, I’m sure it doesn’t take everything into account, and everyone wants to walk to different types of businesses. But we haven’t used the car in a week! Matt walks to work downtown, we shop within walking distance (except we do go to the Ballard Farmer’s Market about every other week because it’s so big in comparison to ours), and I can take the bus to our garden…

Since we moved here 10 weeks ago, we’ve driven 200 miles or so. That includes going all the way to pick up compost three times! By comparison, we were driving 100-200 miles per week in Geyserville!

So I’d say the difference in scores between Geyserville and Seattle is pretty accurate.

So, What’s Yours?

What’s your walkability score? Does the score has any relevance for you and your lifestyle? Or am I just full of myself, thinking we’ve solved this piece of the puzzle?

46 comments to What Is Your Walk Score?

Mine is 83. Actually, Melinda, that would be interesting. What’s your walkability score for your old LA neighborhood? And does it accurately reflect your driving then?

Because the surprising thing about LA, is that it IS much more walkable than one would expect, but I think the culture is such a car culture that people just tend to drive to the grocery even if it’s only a few blocks away.

Now I would say the 83 fairly adequately reflects my driving. I take the subway to the bus to work except when I have to go to something directly after work. On the weekend, I walk to the grocery, walk to my friend’s house, walk to gelato, etc. The car is reserved for longer trips generally, when my friends and I all carpool to the farmers’ market, or when I have to travel to the dreaded subway-less West side. (Have I mentioned I’m an East-side snob?)

I’m not sure if I’ve commented before, but I’m a big fan of your blog. Nice new site!

I was interested in checking this site out and really excited to see a score of 95 in my current neighborhood! I live in Berkeley right on the border with North Oakland, so I have the best of two worlds.

I plugged in a few other places I’ve lived out of curiosity:

Before Berkeley, I lived in south Texas for three years. At a score of 18, it is probably one of the most unsustainable places (and not just in the driving sense) I could imagine, but not a “zero.”

Funny enough, my parents’ neighborhood outside of Lake Tahoe is also an 18 and it is much more rural on appearance than my town in Texas.

My old neighborhood in LA (next to USC): 77. Which is actually really embarrassing because that is a decent number and I only walked to school (and that’s only because there was no parking!). The driving culture is that all-consuming.

To answer your question: Yes, I do think this score is relevant to my lifestyle. I became much more environmentally conscious when I moved to Berkeley for a variety of reasons (it’s Berkeley, more media attention on being “green”), but the biggest one is it is simply easier to live locally here when everything is at my fingertips.

Mine’s only 42, but I noticed that a lot of little businesses in my neighborhood aren’t listed. For me, it’s pretty walkable anyway, since one of my jobs is one block away, and the other is 1.5 miles, which I can bike easily. I think if all the businesses were listed, we’d be up in the 60 range.

My current walk score is something similar – in the 90s. I can’t remember but I did it a while ago.

I then went to see what the walk score was at our old home – a place in the hills with no sidewalks, cut off from what few stores there were by a VERY busy road that I would not walk or bike along to save my life. It was one point lower than our current home – which is flat, has sidewalks and a 10 minute walk from a bustling down town.

I guess my point is that, while the walk score thing is really cool, I wish it could into account things like safety and suitability.

My score is 49. But I feel it is not accurate as they missed out a fred meyer grocery stoore and about a half dozen restaurant type places- but in fairness, it is probably a good indicator for me as I know were everything else is in my neighborhood!

Mine is 52 up here in North Ballard. I do believe the number is way off, particularly since Ballard is ranked just under Capital Hill on the list. We have 2 large grocery stores and a drug store (Walgreens) less than 1/2 mile away. Plus, we are within walking distance of the elementary school and middle school. There are also lots of restaurants within the same distance. But many of them didn’t show up on the map.

It states on the site that it doesn’t take into account bus routes and that’s too bad because we are on the hub of a ton of bus routes so that adds to it as well. So, I think their algorithm needs some work, but one certainly doesn’t need a number to tell them whether or not their neighborhood is walkable :)

And, now I must go visit the Cedar Grove website… what’s been your impression with their potting soil? I got a sample of the compost at work and it looked weird.

My score 12…. pretty much everything apart from a park, school or resturant is over 4km away. There are a lot of businesses that I noticed missing, my most used supermarket and produce store, but it did point out a couple of options that I hadn’t been aware of.

Although its about walkability I find it interesting that public transport links are not included along with things like supermarkets and resturants.

I can’t walk to all the essential services in my community but I can walk to the bus stop and reach many of the things listed quite quickly, the others would require multiple modes of public transport but I could still get there it would just take longer.

your capitol hill location in seattle sounds wonderful to me! once you step out of the car for a week at a time you may find like i did that it leads to a longing to stay out of the car all the time! i find walking, biking or using public transit so much more enjoyable, lighter (all that metal kinda gets bulky carrying it around :)), and so much friendlier. it seems once we are out of our cars we actually greet, smile and sometimes gasp! even TALK with strangers! then we get to know the strangers names and the next thing you know, your “neighborhood” suddenly feels much bigger and warmer. i challenged myself a couple years ago to go without using a car for a week, then a month, then two months. it took a year of sustained UNuse to convince my husband we could give up that second car. we are now happily a one car couple. we haven’t missed a second car at all! we are located in a suburb. our walkability score is 55. most of the services i need are within walking or biking distance. i’m learning of the two modes, i prefer walking, even if it takes a little longer. our options for eating out are rather limited within this range, but eating out is something we are trying to cut down on anyway. (eating, fresh, home cooked meals makes that a really easy “sacrifice”). i’ll probably be looking for a job soon, but i’ve already decided, it will have to be located within walking or biking range or easily accessed by transit. this is definitely limiting my options, in an economy that is already limited, but these last couple years have also taught me to be more resourceful, taking on a “make do” mindset using the materials already available, so it won’t be such a stretch to look at jobs in that light as well.

Mine is 82, which I think is a little higher than it should be because the quick shop is not a grocery store. I have a foot problem that makes it miserable to walk too much but I’m getting a bike, which should make several things (post office, public library, Saturday farmer’s market) non-car trips for me. I already don’t drive much but i want to see just how little I can use the car.

I got a score of 6! But I think it is way too high, unfortunately. The distances seem to be really inaccurate for my area. It shows that the nearest coffe shop is only 3.65 mi away, but in fact it takes 15 minutes to drive there. We live at the end of our road which is 1.6 miles long. The high school is twice as far (about 3 miles) but the web site says it is 1.14 miles. Definitely not as close. But a great idea. If they can just get the distances more accurate!

It gave my bit of Waltham a 74, which I think is a bit low. It left out most of the interesting ethnic grocery stores on Moody Street, and I have no problem walking (or biking) a mile to get to most of what I need. The two really glaring things that we can’t get to by walking are shoes (except at the thrift store, which generally doesn’t have ones in my size) and hardware-store type stuff. The Home Depot at the mall ate the Waltham area hardware stores. I typically go the extra 15 minute ride past the malls into Cambridge and use the Central Square independent hardware store, just to thumb my nose at the Home Depot. :-)

Ours is only a 60, but like Joyce’s neighborhood, mine has a ton of little ethnic grocery stores that are not listed.

That said, they should knock off some points for the 6 months of the year when it is super cold here. We don’t drive much at all in the summer, and then in the winter it’s all buses & the car because I won’t haul the bike trailer in snow.

ARDUOUS, great point. Mine in LA was 77. Though again, there is an issue in that a lot of the places within walking distance were not places we’d frequent – just not our types of businesses. But we were in Culver City, where it’s changing considerably – with a new farmer’s market, and loads of restaurants, a movie theatre, etc. They were probably a mile away from us, and I think I walked ONCE. So, you’re totally right – it’s a car culture that I partook in while there.

LAUREN, thanks for your comment – and your compliments! Berkeley was one of the other places we were thinking of moving to – Seattle won out mostly because our family is here. And see above, my comment to Arduous: I also very rarely walked in LA (LOL, the song popped into my head “nobody walks in LA”). I feel the same way: it really is easier to live (and live locally) in a place where you can just walk out the door and walk down the street.

JOYCE, I think you are making your neighborhood walkable by the decisions you have made to find a home that is close to your jobs, and setting out to live locally. What you’re doing is awesome, and I admire you for it!

GB, Glad you like it! It’s great that your suburban area is so walkable!

GB, ROB & CRUNCHY, I agree – it’s not totally accurate and I think it only serves as a general tool. My mom in Mt Baker (south Seattle) said it showed Empire Way on the map, vs MLK which it has been for a good 20 years. Also showed a store that burned down and listed a church as a park… it must be based on old info, at least in some cases.

So definitely it has its problems. I suppose safety, suitability, and several other things people have suggested are much more in depth information that would require major studies. I was amazed that Belinda in Australia was able to see her score – so it must be some kind of algorithm based on google maps or something. Maybe they need to update their maps…

SHIBAGUYZ, WELCOME HOME! Glad you’re back, and I look forward to hearing all about it!

BELINDA, bummer. But I totally agree, that they should have included transportation. They actually agree, too, according to one of their pages on the site. Transportation and safety were big ones they wanted to address but couldn’t.

BECKY, It is wonderful. ; ) We love it. And yes, we do have that longing… we have to run some errands today and I’m dreading it! I love your points about how it changes your feeling about the neighborhood – I do believe I’m a friendlier person here.

Matt finding work close to home has been a wonderful thing for us. He had other job offers further away, but picked this one because of its proximity (and the content of the job was better too). We don’t have to spend a lot of money on gas, and a lot of time on a commute. Two very good things!

Glad you like the site!

ADRIENNE, I admit I have not used my bike here. It calls to me once in a while, but I do love walking. Sounds like biking is best for you, and it is great for those distances that are slightly longer than a do-able walk. I’m sure I’ll yank mine out of the closet soon. Thanks for the reminder. ; )

STACY, sounds very similar to where we lived in Geyserville…. only better. The nearest town of any substance was 10 miles away, and the nearest town with many things we needed was about 25 miles away. But as you can see from the map above, it actually found some things closer… I wonder if they are doing distance by how the crow flies, or they just can’t pinpoint an address…?

SARAH, I love that image of you thumbing your nose at Home Depot. LOL. You guys and your bikes… you’re going to push me onto mine. I think the barrier for me is the hills, and I am so out of shape…. but soon it will be time…. That’s great that there are only 2 things you can’t find by walking!!

ROSA, Ah, good point to add weather to the equation! I think our score would go up higher, as it doesn’t get very cold or hot here. Although it does rain… would they mark down for that? Sounds like you are pretty far north!

Hmm. Our old house in Everett was a 48, which seems low. Our new place is a 0, which I would expect since we’re 3 miles from everything. So from a walkability standpoint I guess we’re screwed… Unless you count the fact that I can walk to the garden for veggies, the back meadow for berries, the chicken coop for eggs and the neighbors to pet the cows. :)

But truthfully, we knew that when we moved here. It’s only saving grace is that in 3.5 miles we can reach all services clustered together in Smokey Point, or in 6 miles reach our favorite businesses clustered together in old town Arlington. In that sense we do less driving now than we did when we lived at the old place where the businesses we shopped were all spread out and we had to drive hither and yon.

On the flip side, our utilities bills are substantially lower out here as we’re using less electricity and less propane as compared to our old natural gas bill.

18 – that’s my score here in the vast tundra of suburbia. Sad, isn’t it? I always say that all you West Coast Bloggers have all the fun stuff.

Though I wonder is there a site that might do a bike score? We have been using our bikes more often and have a rails to trails project that allows us to get to more places that wouldn’t register on the walk score site. We ride to restaurants, stores and the library, which is great. But to walk would take hours…

Our walk score was 34, but I bet if they used the same algorithm for biking, we’d be up there pretty high. Our city is a 5×5 mile square, so we can bike nearly everywhere, and the city is fairly bike friendly.

I am so glad to see that things are improving! You seem very happy in Seattle.

I got a walk score of 85 but I would add at least another five for being a five minute walk from the bus stop, which the tool doesn’t appear to take into consideration. Then I would have to minus ten however as there isn’t a substantial farmers’ market within walking distance and I drive to the one that is.

BTW – I visited the Ballard market last year on a trip with a friend. There was a man with a beautiful, kind smile selling blueberries whose picture I took (and blueberries I bought). And there was a wild store with a Chinese dragon head in the top window that had old curious things displayed in drawers that you could discover one by one. Check it out. I’m glad you landed at such a friendly market. Everyone was so nice.

Melinda; Hi! Long time no talk! So thrilled about your new WalkScore! Amazing. Mine is 43 but we’ve been biking all over plus we just figured out our bus system (which we had NEVER taken!) and I actually think I could live in this town without a car now! Plus, the bus drivers honk hello at us now while we are biking, and that’s nice. How much is that worth?!

I assume it is based on google maps, but the terminology throws the Australian results off. We don’t say grocery store, for example, and if they’d searched for ‘market’ the map would show where I really shop. As others have said, small local shops don’t have a web-presence, so they don’t come up. Big chain supermarkets and clothing outlets do. My suburb has lots of independent designers, owner-operated cafes, and pubs that do great meals. None of that is apparent through this particular test, although I think the test is still valuable.

My friend lives in a small city, a few blocks from her workplace, but she drives to work. She’d rather not, but she’s the custodian of the work car, and is obligued to drive it to work everyday, and drive it home and stick it in her garage. I think if I were here I’d have refused to take the car. I think she wishes she had refused more forcefully to garage a car that isn’t even hers. Her walkability rating comes out higher than mine, but she is in practice further from the types of shops she’s most likely to buy her clothes and shoes from. In practice she drives more than 2 hours to get to the big city where she can visit friends and buy stuff she wants to wear! Wouldnt it be lovely if someone had the time and inclination to produce a more complex test?

Mine was 69. I think that’s low. Especially since I walk downtown all the time. It takes me 20-30 minutes. It would take me 15 minutes to walk to the mall (haven’t been there in over a year though). In fact, everything I could want or need is within walking distance. Getting it home is another story. I was packing a bag of compost home from the store last weekend. It was two blocks and by the end of the first block I was wishing I’d just borrowed the darn shopping cart!

melinda,
i forgot to say that i believe the score of 55 is accurate for our abode here in suburbia. the list of services was outdated though. one recent renovation has added a new very helpfully located hardware store within easy walking range. our community is very walkable and definitely there are many many options within biking range. sadly, most of the biking is along heavily trafficked arterial roads with speed limits at 45 (most drivers definitely exceeding that) which makes biking a little intimidating (at least for me). it is (like arduous said about LA) such a car culture here that almost all my neighbors drive even if the errand is under 1 mile round trip! encouragingly, lately i’ve seen a real increase in walkers and bikers out and about. i’m hopeful greater awareness of ped/biking issues will result as the numbers increase.

deb g,
about carrying home compost…i converted a former plastic book crate with wheels into a shopping cart. i can pull home quite heavy loads and it has served reliably well for 2 years now, except for one 39 cent clamp on washer on one of the wheels which was recently just replaced by the helpful clerk at the aforementioned hardware store. the crate easily accomodates a case of beer and then some inside the cube, with a canvas bag looped over the handle resting on top of those goodies for still more and a small backpack for the fragile items, i’m good to go. the crate folds up into a briefcase size box with a handle making it very easy to carry to the store for the next trip. then it springs open into convenient, trustworthy action for the haul home!

CRUNCHY C, Forgot to answer your question yesterday! I was dubious of the Cedar Grove potting soil the first couple of times we bought it in bags. It was really inconsistent from bag to bag, and it comes from city yard waste… But considering how much we needed, I searched around for different sources of compost and potting soil. Cedar Grove has a soil booster blend that has manure and worm castings mixed with the compost, and that seemed like a perfect amendment for our regular soil. And I decided to try the potting soil there, since it was so darn cheap!

Our garden is growing like crazy. After the first run, we did end up mixing the soil booster with the potting soil, which I like better than the potting soil alone. But other than a few bits of plastic bags that didn’t get filtered out (which is kind of ick, but you get that with just about any bulk potting soil), it has been amazing. I recommend it!

Plus, I also really dig the idea of supporting this closed system of consumer waste.

LAURA, interesting that your utilities are lower – why is that? And what do you use propane for?

EBM & KATIE, Did you check out GB’s score? Pretty high in suburbia. Guess it’s West Coast suburbia, though. ; ) Doing a bike score is a great idea. I read on a blog that the same site did a bike score, but I think they might have done away with it. LOL, they have a drive score tool though.

KATRINA, I’m across the street from the bus stop – it’s great, isn’t it? And yeah, the makers of the site acknowledge that not including bus stops and a few other things are a problem of the tool. Bummer that you don’t have a nearby farmer’s market. I will look for the Chinese dragon head!

PATTIE, Good to see you here! Congratulations on getting on the bus. I just recently wrote about my new bus experience, too. Much easier once you break that barrier!

KATE, Ah, good point. I was surprised to see that you guys could use the tool at all, but of course it makes sense that it wouldn’t translate well. And I totally agree that it’s a big failing to include the big box stores and not the little ones. I guess it gives you a general sense for comparison, but doesn’t give good details. I think it would be AWESOME to have a more complex study.

Interestingly, I just realized Matt is doing a similar study at work. They’re studying the effects of the new mass transit system on public health as it relates to changes in people’s walking habits. A big 5-year study. I guess that’s the issue, is that it takes time and money!

MEG, blech is right. Guess you’ll have to use the tool when you guys start thinking about where you’ll go. ; )

DEB G, yeah, considering we can also walk downtown easily, and have pretty much an endless supply of resources, ours should be as high as downtown too. I believe they’re taking a 1 mile radius, but some of us would walk more than a mile! But LOL, I have done that more than once. OOOh, boy do your arms hurt the next day!

BECKY, I believe we will see an increase in bikers and pedestrians as the gas prices rise. As it gets higher, I imagine families will begin creating gas budgets for themselves, and going those extra couple of miles will really add up. I was bad in LA, and should have biked more. But it is scary to bike there! However, that is something that may change in the future, as more bicyclists hit the road.

This tool was great fun. My place scored 62, but the train tracks between me and businesses across the street – illegal to cross – skew the score. I decided to look at others – family, friends, old addresses, etc. My current home is better than any by golly. I agree that it needs a lot of work, but I reel at the idea of how huge the database needs to be to fulfill all of these wishes.

Speaking of databases . . . Doesn’t it creep anyone else out that our growing loss of privacy means anyone on the internet can check out our front door via Google? I am deeply antagonistic about what the Patriot Act and the recent FISA legislation has done to our civil liberties under the 4th amendment. This was the flip side of enjoying this stimulating technology.

My walk score is 57. Unfortunately I’d say it should be just a little lower, since it includes a movie theater that closed down and a driving school as the closest school. Hmm. We honestly don’t walk to many things, though we could probably make it to the video store and a walgreens by foot, and we could bike to our grocery store and/or the town business district if we decided to (and felt safe biking on a major arterial in the st. louis area). For now, we drive just about everywhere (I even drive to the train station to start off my daily commute), so we try to combine and limit our trips whenever we can…

Thats a fun tool. My score was 52. I can understand that. We can walk to a lot, but Sonoma is far from a budding metropolis and there aren’t many shops to start with, so I have a feeling that even if it were a driving score, it will still be in the 50′s.

KATE, hm. Yeah, there is an awful lot of information that is super easy to find about anyone and everyone you want to learn about. I guess I’m a little less creeped out about this kind of stuff, because I can’t visualize how anyone would use it against me (but of course you never know). The Patriot Act as a whole? Really creeps me out. A very bad thing.

LISA, I’m still thinking about getting a group of local bloggers together… I think it would be a blast!

LORI, It’s a bit outdated for most of us, I think. It’s funny how different areas have different cultures about walking. I wouldn’t have thought there was much walkable in your neighborhood. And as Arduous pointed out (above), I was not a good walker in LA even though I could have walked places. I don’t know, keep it in the back of your mind as an option – maybe sometime the mood will strike! ; ) Combining trips is a great alternative. I’m really impressed with all that you guys are doing!

KENDRA, LOL – at least it’s better than Geyserville! You do have a lot of shops within walking distance, but it’s true, to shop for some things you probably do have to go into a bigger place. We didn’t think we’d need to when we first moved there, but we found ourselves in Santa Rosa quite a bit. Ah well, you have a beautiful garden to “shop” from!

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It’s difficult to me to understand how computer counts my walk, drive and others scores. By what criterion it judges? I always don’t agree with my mark and I feel upset! I don’t need most things (Gas Station, Railway Station) that computer proposing to me. But I found a service http://drivescore.fizber.com/ that offers me to choose things by myself. So my score became much higher than it was. And now I am very satisfy and happy.

I was so shocked to learn that my neighborhood had a score of 46! I like fairly close to the city and it sure feels like everything is walking distance. Great find and thanks for sharing. I’ll be using this to help me find a more walk-able neighborhood.